D I A R Y  2 0 0 2

I'm Cold, Throw Some More Benjamins on the Fire...

On the stereo, X's Under the Big Black Sun, which follows Eleni Mandell's Wishbone and the old DG recording of Reich's Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ. All of which seem appropriate for a balmy summer afternoon in the East Bay.

I am amused and depressed by the recent Industry-related melees involving Michael Jackson (the amused part) and more importantly Don Henley and his pleas for the respect due the artists in the Industry- he's been on the front lines of pro-artist activism for quite a while, and I do, of course, completely and vigorously support his stand on artists rights. He co-founded the Recording Artists Coalition and recently spoke on the Lehrer NewsHour about the so-called "labor-revolt" within the recording industry.

We all know, especially those of us who are musicians, of the indefensible and criminal "common practice" in the industry of artists paying for their own creations to enter the world and the subsequent ownership of that creation by their label. The label must completely recoup the advances loaned to the artist as well as the production/promotion costs that accompany the release before the artist sees a dime in royalties, and after this, the label owns the record. An artist who signs to a major label also runs the risk of being tied to a multi-album deal which has no provision for increased royalties as the artist's revenues for the label increase, and even more disturbingly to the artist, often the contract signed by the artist makes no guarantee that the artist's record will ever be released at all, though the label will own it in perpetuity- effectively taking it away from the artist and never giving it back. Old news. And, horribly depressing. But....

Mr. Henley's view is clearly from the orchestra section, not the cheap seats in this matter. He complains, and rightly so, about the "indentured servitude" of artists tied to multi-record deals and the fact that they can't pursue their "market value" while tethered to these deals. However, as Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother, IRS Records founder, ARK 21 Records founder, manager of The Police, the Go-Gos, amongst others) said:

"If you ask any new artist, 'How would you like to be an indentured servant like Don Henley,' they'd all say, 'where do I sign, because we'd love to have houses and millions like he has. Please let me be an indentured servant!'"

This is the real crux of the matter. The vast majority of musicians, myself and nearly everyone I know included, are committed, talented and deserving artists who, like Henley, have "busted our butts touring for years and years" trying just to make a meager living in our chosen profession, and in many cases, not succeeding. We can't get a label to take the time to piss in our lemonade, let alone help our music be heard by an audience greater than small groups of disinterested bar patrons, despite what we "deserve." How can a talented, deserving independent artist who can't get a deal in this day and age relate to the disparity that exists between the "haves" and "have-nots" in the music industry? How can an independent artist relate to the fact that Mr. Henley may not be able to buy another summer house in the Hamptons due to his unfulfilled "market value?" I am certainly not taking the side of the major corporate labels, since they are essentially criminals and artistic rapists whose concept of ownership is highly suspect and who bleed artists for every penny, but consider that 90% of the releases on major labels don't recoup their production, promotion and distribution costs.

The label loses, and the artist certainly loses.

If Mr. Henley gets out of his restricting multi-album deal, I really don't see him signing to a no-name indie with marginal distribution in the name of artistic and monetary freedom. Why? Because he knows an indie can't afford him the lifestyle he is accustomed to and "deserves." He should be incredibly grateful that when he had the luck to get a deal back in the late 60's/early 70's, the music industry was a very different place, a place that could actually nurture antiquated concepts like "artist development." Not that it was necessarily a wonderful time for music in the 70's (read Hit Men by Fredric Dannen), but answer me this: if the Eagles were just coming on the scene now, does he (or anyone) think they'd get a record deal?

The music industry is in a terrible state right now. Drastic drops in music sales, concert attendance, etc. Is the industry to blame because, despite the money thrown at marketing and promotion, not enough people give a shit to actually buy the product? The bar must be lowered. Reality must set in! Artists must be willing to accept a leveled playing field and the record industry must adopt lowered expectations, or no one prospers. Living the rock star lifestyle and complaining about your "market value" is particularly hypocritical when fellow musicians of equal talent and commitment barely make enough to buy potted meat food product and have next to no hope of ever reaching Mr. Henley's level of success. Moreso, this industry that Mr. Henley rails against and allows him his lifestyle is precariously close to collapse.

Of course, artists like Mr. Henley, and certainly artists like N'Sync and Britney Spears, aren't willing to settle for less, and the labels certainly won't settle for less, so the great implosion of the industry is imminent, since the labels can't afford to continue to incur such huge losses using their current business strategies. As Mr. Copeland put it :

"We're all sitting on the "Titanic" here and we've got a couple of artists arguing that the price of their first class cabin or size of the first class cabin is outrageous, meanwhile we've just spotted the iceberg and we say, 'guys, let's argue later. We have an iceberg in front of us.'"

I can't feel too much pity for the recording industry in this either, since the labels are blindly reactionary to perceived trends and signed these unsuccessful artists. The labels "rolled the dice and took their chances" and came up empty.

The true losers in this are the artists who deserve a shot and never get it, as well as the artists who get a major deal and never recouped the money loaned to them, so not only do they not own their record, they also owe a huge debt for having released it in the first place.

I particularly like the part in the Lehrer story quoting Courtney Love: "I too have a catalogue worth a billion dollars. I've made more for Universal than 'Titanic.' And are they even nice to me? No! They're rude!"

Boo hoo Courtney. Some industry people aren't nice to you. Who are you nice to? You take the money that their marketing and distribution muscle allowed you to receive, yes? Next time an industry weasel is rude to you, hit him in the face with a tight stack of hundreds. That'll teach him.

Rumble, Throb and Squeak

Ornette- Change of the Century. A favorite, an evergreen. Without the “glue” of a piano each part and player is so open and clear, the feeling is overwhelming: four soloists playing simultaneously, each isolated and yet together- I imagine just as the man envisioned. You don’t need no goddamn piano to play jazz- I mean, Out To Lunch doesn’t have one either. Ornette- plays like a drunk man somehow dancing gracefully- makes me want to bid on that Grafton sax that‘s on eBay right now. Now I’m the one dancing about architecture. Oh yeah, that’s right. Ken Burns said this music wasn’t important.

Last week’s planned excursion to the land of La La didn’t happen- couldn’t happen. Many troubles afoot - nothing worth talking about. Hopefully we'll get back down there in May.

We will be in Humboldt at the end of next week for a short, hopefully sweet bit of membrane flogging and metal wobbling, and we hope, without the traditional truck break-in and equipment theft. The HSU campus is a treasured gig for us; we always seem to rise to the occasion and we’ve always had major response there. I must admit I’m wondering whether we should trot out a moldy oldy like “Time Must Have A Stop” that the Phish-fryers up there might dig. That tune might be a bit anachronistic next to the current set material, but I’m game for a trip down memory lane. Our last gig on the trip is back at the Iguana in Redway, which is a fun gig, and as is usual for that club we will be playing some covers. The main thing that concerns me now is how in hell I can handle an eight hour drive down 101 on Sunday and still make it to the Tony Levin show at the Great American Music Hall that night at 8:PM.

As I’ve been promising/threatening, I’ll be rolling out a site re-design (sans unforgivable pop-up ads) in a couple weeks.

In digitally encoded news, I’ll be posting a rough mix of Smoke & Mirrors on our MP3.com site in a day or so. I just need to find the latest mix in the pile of DATs on my desk and rip it, baby. I will issue a preemptive disclaimer that states that the mix isn’t perfect, particularly the drums are down too far. Yes, really. Not just my opinion, either.

Oh, and speaking of eBay, here’s an urgent request: stop bidding up the prices of Josh Agle serigraphs beyond rational levels. Despite the small edition size, a print that sold for $150 six months ago isn’t worth nearly $800 now. Really.

Takin' it to Church

Spending a relaxing evening watching the rain fall while the Nord Modular synthesizer percolates in the background- trying to get some sequences together for inclusion on "Lotus Eaters." We finished the majority of overdubs last night (yes, really) and what remains is my synthisization and some Brian May-esque guitar overdubs on "Illumination." These bits 'o seasoning will be added to finish off our rather unwieldy stew before we move on to mixing (finally).

I am happy to report that the end of last night's session with the lovely Christina Perna went swimmingly- her vocals were the perfect finish to the gospel-ish "The Neon Light." Christina's contribution is the first collaborative effort we've ever put on tape, and we picked a real winner to start with. A public thanks to Christina!

The rest of the last two days' sessions consisted of adding vocal doubles and harmonies on day one and instrumental additions on day two. One major addition is Attila's multi-tracked recorder parts on "Golden Gates." A fairly short part, but Attila and Dave slaved for days trying to get it fleshed out prior to recording. With it in place, the song's "renaissance-y" flavor is set.

My biggest source of anxiety was the electronic percussion on "Harvest Man". Fortunately, I was able to get the parts down with a minimum of time wasted, and it sounds pretty good. Other additions include some ambient vocal loops to "Smoke & Mirrors" and a mellotron part to "A Game of Chess."

After all the work that's been done to add ear candy to the tracks, I must admit I'm beginning to get pretty excited about this record.

 

The Road Less Travelled

We returned from our tour last week, and I have to say that despite some fine performances and kind words and attention (perhaps all that can be reasonably asked for) , the tour was rather unsatisfactory on several levels.

First off, biting cold, rain and snow. To be expected regarding the geography and the time of year of course, but off-putting nonetheless. I don’t particularly enjoy navigating by observing the white line on the side of the road, but I had to do just that during the sojourn from Portland to Chehalis Washington for our gig at the beloved Matrix. The weather undoubtedly contributed to the appalling attendance at that show, though we must at this juncture mention the “beyond the call” attendance by die-hards Chris and John, who trekked some 90 miles for the show (after having trekked a comparable distance to see us in Eugene the night before). Their sole compensation for this brazen act of support was the knowledge that the performance was practically a private one. However, our efforts were amply rewarded with comfortable accommodations and a pair of fine meals. I must say that my enduring memory of that evening was the brief stop at the gas station food mart before arriving at the venue, where the young lady behind the counter inquired about my California driver‘s license, and assumed a look of incredulity when I informed her that we were a traveling band playing her town on a night like that. Her look seemed to scream “Why?,” and at that moment, I was curious myself.

We did manage to enjoy ourselves on KVRM in Eugene, where we debuted the rough mix of Smoke and Mirrors, and part of our giddy excitement was based on the fact that we barely made it to the studio in time for the show. A late start caused by some automotive difficulties in the Bay Area is to blame, as is the lack of conveniently spaced freeway exits on I-5 in central Oregon. With guitars, bass pedals and Handsonic in hand we regaled the listeners of Echoes of Soundscapes and show host Dave Bischoff with a few acoustic songs and made an urgent plea to anyone within earshot to come to our Cafe Paradiso show. We are happy to report that Dave himself made it, as did the aforementioned John and Chris.

While in Portland we did something we rarely do- catch a live show at a club. But since this was the California Guitar Trio and the Trey Gunn band in a double bill at Berbati‘s Pan, we found it hard to resist. All in all, it was a fine evening’s entertainment and was a glimmer of hope that not all clubs and bands suck. The guitar trio was inspiring as always (I’ve seen them before, at the Great American Music Hall in SF), and Trey Gunn’s band was powerful and very tight. In regards to the trio, hearing Beethoven in a grimy rock club is a rare and welcome occurrence. I’ve seen Trey on several occasions (King Crimson, ProjeKct Two), but this was probably the most impressive I’ve seen him. His playing is at a level beyond mere “talent,” as is the playing of his band, particularly the marvelous Bob Muller on drums, tabla and percussion. Bob’s integration of tabla, drums and loops is where I wish to be in my own playing with this band. Mucho impressivo.